196 PHYSIOLOGY [BoT. Absts., Vol. VII, 



1316. MacLean, Ida Smedley, and Ethel Mary Thomas. The nature of yeast fat. 

 Biochem. Jour. 14:485-493. 1920. 



1317. MiLLEB, Elizabeth W. The effect of cooking on the water-soluble vitamine in 

 carrots and navy beans. Jour. Biol. Chem. 44 : 159-173. 1920. — Cooking carrots for 30 minutes 

 at 100°C. caused no reduction in the vitamine. Cooking navy beans at 120° for 30 minutes 

 decreased the vitamine content 40.6 per cent. — G. B. Rigg. 



1318. MocKERiDGE, FLORENCE Annie. The occurrence and nature of the plant growth 

 promoting substances in various organic manurial composts. Biochem. Jour. 14: 432-450. 

 1920. — Lemna major was grown in Knop's solution to which were added small amounts of 

 extracts from leaf mould, fresh and old manure, bacterized peat, etc. Cultures to which 

 such extracts were added gave better growth than that of the control in Knop's solution alone. 

 The author concludes that there are organic extractables in such materials, probably formed 

 by bacterial action, which are beneficial to plant growth. A chemical study of such extracts 

 showed all to contain nucleic acids and derivatives, and these are concluded to play an impor- 

 tant role as auximones. — Alva R. Davis. 



1319. MooRB, Benjamin, and T. Arthur Webster. Studies of photosynthesis in fresh- 

 water algae. — 1. The fixation of both carbon and nitrogen from the atmosphere to form organic 

 tissue by the green plant cell. 2. Nutrition and growth produced by high gaseous dilutions of 

 simple organic compoimds, such as formaldehyde and methylic alcohol. 3. Nutrition and 

 growth by means of high dilution of carbon dioxide and oxides of nitrogen without access to 

 atmosphere. Proc. Roy. Soc. London B, 91 : 201-215. 1920. — The authors present reasons for 

 thinking the earliest organisms could utilize both inorganic carbon and nitrogen, and that 

 bacteria are later, specialized types. They indicate that the first synthetic agencies were 

 inorganic colloids, utilizing shorter wave lengths of light. They also outline careful culture 

 experiments showing that green algae, (a) if supplied with carbon dioxide, will grow and fix 

 atmospheric nitrogen; (b) will exhibit fixation and growth much faster if supplied with nitrites 

 or oxides of nitrogen in addition to carbon dioxide; and (c) can utilize extremely dilute solu- 

 tions of formaldehyde and methylic alcohol as sole sources of carbon. Oxides of nitrogen are 

 available in pure country air. — Paul B. Sears. 



1320. NiERENSTAiN. M. Waage's phytochemical synthesis of phloroglucin from glucose. 

 Nature 105: 391. 1920. — The author states that he has tried the experiment (floating leaves 

 in sugar solutions exposed to sunlight) nearly eighty times in the last fifteen years without 

 success. — 0. A. Stevens. 



1321. Pringsheim, H. tJber das Vorkommen optischer Antipoden in der Natur. [Con- 

 cerning the occurrence of optical antipodes in nature.] Ber. Deutsch. Chem. Ges. 53: 1372- 

 1374. 1920. — A critical discussion of the work of Hesz. — Henry Schmitz. 



1322. Raistrick, Harold, and Anne Barbara Clark. On the mechanism of oxalic 

 acid formation by Aspergillus niger. Biochem. Jour. 13 : 329-344. 1919. — Aspergillv^ niger 

 was grown on synthetic media with Na, NH4, or Ca salts of organic acids as sources of car- 

 bon, and the quantity of oxalic acid produced was estimated. The carbon sources behaved 

 as follows in reference to growth and acid production: (1) Four-carbon dibasic acids gave 

 good growth and good yield of oxalic acid; (2) four-carbon monobasic acids gave almost no 

 yield and no oxalic acid; (3) three-carbon acids gave very good growth and either no yield or 

 small yield of acid; (4) two-carbon acids, as acetic, gave good growth and yield of acid, while 

 glycoUic and glyoxalic acids gave but fair growth and no acid; (5) the one-carbon acid, formic, 

 gave fair yield and no oxalic acid. A theoretical scheme is suggested to represent the break- 

 down of sugar to oxalic acid. This involves the intermediate formation of /3-5-di-keto-adipic 

 acid which hydrolyses to acetic and oxalic, the acetic in each case oxidizing to o.xalic. — 

 Alva R. Davis. 



